Food fraud in spice supply chain networks

Introduction
EU-China-Safe will mobilise resources in Europe and China to develop a cohesive partnership that will deliver a shared vision for food safety and authenticity and work towards “mutual recognition”. Comprising 16 participants from the EU and 17 from China, EU-China-Safe contains key research organisations, government and industry needed to develop and jointly implement major advances in improving food safety and combating food fraud in the two trading blocks.

Aim
The project will develop an EU-China Joint Laboratory Network that will achieve and demonstrate equivalency of results, and will develop a state of the art virtual laboratory, with interchangeable staff from two continents, that will be used as a “showcase” to communicate and demonstrate best practice. Innovative traceability tools will strengthen the most vulnerable supply chains. New or improved detection capabilities for chemical/microbiological hazards and food fraud will be implemented in a harmonised way across the EU-China network. Trade barriers caused by food safety and fraud issues will be analysed and recommendations of how to predict and prevent future events disseminated.

Approach
1. Mapping ginger supply chain networks
2. Assessment of fraud vulnerability in ginger supply chains                      
3. Development of confirmatory methodology for detecting spice adulteration  
4. Development of rapid screening techniques for detecting spice adulteration         
5. Integration of fraud risks and fraud prevalence

References
Website: www.euchinasafe.eu